Vehicle cabin air conditioning system

Abstract

A vehicle cabin air conditioning system has an individual air conditioner for conditioning air in a target space in a cabin. The individual air conditioner has a blower, a suction port, a heat generator, and a supply port. The heat generator concurrently generates cold heat and warm heat inside the housing. At least one of the cold air cooled with the cold heat and the warm air heated with the warm heat is supplied from the supply port to the target space. The vehicle cabin air conditioning system has a thermal load reducing unit and a supply flow path. The thermal load reducing unit adjusts the temperature of air sucked from the suction port in order to reduce the thermal load in the heat generator. The supply flow path guides the air controlled in temperature by the thermal load reducing unit to the suction port.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A vehicle cabin air conditioning system comprising:
 an individual air conditioner that conditions air in a target space predetermined inside a cabin, the individual air conditioner including
 a blower disposed inside a housing, 
 a suction port to suck air into the housing when the blower operates, 
 a heat generator disposed in the housing to simultaneously generate cold heat for cooling air blown by the blower and warm heat for heating the air, and 
 a supply port to supply at least one of a cold air cooled with the cold heat generated by the heat generator and a warm air heated with the warm heat generated by the heat generator to the target space outside the housing; 
   a thermal load reducing unit configured to adjust a temperature of the air sucked from the suction port in order to reduce a thermal load in the heat generator;   a supply flow path configured to guide the air controlled in temperature by the thermal load reducing unit to the suction port;   a suction load determination unit that specifies a suction load that is an air conditioning thermal load of air sucked into the housing from the suction port;   a condition determination unit that determines whether a predetermined load condition is satisfied using the suction load and an air conditioning thermal load of air in the cabin in an initial stage of an air conditioning operation; and   a circulation operation control unit that controls operation of the blower so as to circulate the air in the cabin, when the condition determination unit determines that the load condition is satisfied, by drawing in air in the cabin from the suction port into the housing and sending the air into the cabin from the housing via an exhaust port.   
     
     
         2 . The vehicle cabin air conditioning system according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the heat generator is a refrigeration cycle device comprising: a compressor to compress and discharge refrigerant; a condenser to radiate heat of high-pressure refrigerant compressed by the compressor to generate the warm heat; a decompressor to decompress the refrigerant flowing out from the condenser; and an evaporator that causes the refrigerant decompressed in the decompressor to absorb heat to generate the cold heat, and   the thermal load reducing unit supplies the air controlled in temperature by the thermal load reducing unit to at least one of the condenser and the evaporator via the suction port.   
     
     
         3 . The vehicle cabin air conditioning system according to  claim 2 , wherein
 the thermal load reducing unit supplies the air cooled by the thermal load reducing unit to the condenser in the heat generator when the cold air is supplied from the supply port to the target space.   
     
     
         4 . The vehicle cabin air conditioning system according to  claim 2 , wherein
 the thermal load reducing unit supplies the air heated by the thermal load reducing unit to the evaporator in the heat generator when the warm air is supplied from the supply port to the target space.   
     
     
         5 . The vehicle cabin air conditioning system according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the individual air conditioner is a seat air conditioner that conditions air in the target space defined for a seat arranged in the cabin, and   the housing is disposed between a seat bottom of the seat and a floor surface of the cabin.